Incorrect strategy cost BN votes
Anwar and Kit Siang are inviting police to arrest them. They want to be arrested. They are totally irresponsible. If you see the recent rallies and that majority of the participants are Chinese, what do you think will happen if one hot-headed Malay organisation wants to organise a counter rally? But Anwar and Kit Siang don’t mind, if there is another inter-racial incident, they would blame BN. If you are willing to sacrifice peace and stability for your ends, what kind of leadership is this?
A. Kadir Jasin, TMI
Twice the finance minister and now a sought after political commentator, Tun Daim Zauniddin attributed the Barisan Nasional’s poor showing at the May 5 general election to incorrect strategy.
He told the China Press newspaper that Malaysia’ general election is a parliamentary election and not a presidential election, adding that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s advisers should be sacked.
“If you associate a vote for BN as a vote for him (Najib), then BN’s poorer results reflect on him too.
“This is a parliamentary election, not a presidential election. The PM’s advisers should be sacked,” he said.
And is Najib a lame duck prime minister and Umno president?
The following is the English transcript of the interview, which covered a wide variety of issues surrounding the outcome of the 13th GE, made available to this blog. I record my appreciation to the China Press for its superb effort and to Daim’s office.
The Day After
Q1: Tun, what was first in your mind when you first received the full election result? Did you expect it?
A: I wasn’t surprised. At around noon the feedback I got was that BN 141, DAP 38 but my own assessment was BN between 125 and 135 only.
Q2: Do you think this election was a fair one? Opposition parties and NGOs still accused BN of misuse the government facilities, and the problematic integrity of the electoral roll.
A: Of course it is fair. If it’s not fair how come in Penang and Selangor Pakatan improved on majorities and Federal BN get only 133. These accusations are not new. They said all these even before the elections. I’ve said earlier that they will be saying all these because they know they can’t get to Putrajaya.
Read my interviews before this, I said they will be proclaiming to world they would win and that if they don’t its because they have been robbed and therefore entitled to protest, incite people which is that they are doing now and they want people to go to streets. They want FRUs, water cannons and teargas then CNN, Al Jazeera, etc will be back and they are back in the news.
Anwar and Kit Siang are inviting police to arrest them. They want to be arrested. They are totally irresponsible. If you see the recent rallies and that majority of the participants are Chinese, what do you think will happen if one hot-headed Malay organisation wants to organise a counter rally? But Anwar and Kit Siang don’t mind, if there is another inter-racial incident, they would blame BN. If you are willing to sacrifice peace and stability for your ends, what kind of leadership is this?
They say they should be the rightful leaders of this country, yet they defy laws, defy the police, and they have no respect for, and undermine every institution of government which they say they should helm. What kind of leadership promotes lawlessness and anarchy? What message do you send and what lessons do you teach the young and the impressionable? Leadership comes with responsibility.
There are laws in this country. Go to court, of course, they say courts are not fair, yet these same courts have acquitted Anwar. Again when it’s convenient to them they go to the courts to sue and silence their detractors. They accept where they won and reject where they lost. They are selective. Karpal practises and appeals before this same court.
Be brave and honest. Accept the results. Karpal says he is happy with the results. PAS has accepted. Azmin is critical of Anwar’s refusal to accept the results and doing these rallies, but don’t read too much into his statements. It’s like an old married couple’s quarrel, one party merajuk (sulks) but in the end they are still together.
Anwar is already up to his tricks — putting out feelers to Barisan MPs. He is waiting after the Cabinet appointments for another round of his September 16.
Reasons for Poor BN Performance
Q3: As expected in our last interview, BN managed to retain Putrajaya but couldn’t regain the two-third majority. What are the main reasons?
A: Really you should ask BN. But in my opinion, it’s the wrong strategy. As I’ve said before, this is a parliamentary election, not a presidential election. The PM’s advisers should be sacked. If you associate a vote for BN as a vote for him, then BN poorer results reflects on him too. I kept reminding them that those huge numbers at BN’s ceramahs do not translate into votes. You don’t try to fight his (Anwar’s) numbers with your even bigger numbers. Let Anwar be the entertainer (borrowing from The Financial Times). We are not entertainers, we don’t know how to sing, dance and tell jokes. It’s a serious business electing a government, so let’s leave this clown’s strategy alone and not play to his game.
If I know, then surely BN knows that the Chinese majority areas were gone. Why waste time and money? As a strategy, you should concentrate on those areas where you lost by slim majorities in 2008 and strengthen the seats you won in 2008. There was also the question of choice of candidates, and, for example, in Pandan, why be petty?
Many people disputed that there was a Chinese tsunami. But there was, in the sense that Chinese voters voted en block whilst non-Chinese votes were split; but this is their right. This is democracy.
What was disturbing was the reason for the en block votes. Pakatan preached hatred for BN particularly Umno. DAP have always told the Chinese that they are victims, marginalised; that the cup they have is always half empty; that this is the time to teach MCA and Gerakan a lesson for being under Umno’s control, that Umno (and by extension the Malays) were dominant, and this was a Malay-led government, and the Chinese by voting out all the Chinese parties in BN is saying that they have had enough of being bullied by Umno/Malays. If this is not racist, I don’t know what is.
Their cybertroopers were at work, 24 hours a day, sending misinformation, spins, rumours, lies, untruths, etc. Where were the Banglas? Where was the blackout? How many people whose ink washed off voted twice? Tun M flew away in a private jet? Lies and lies and the Chinese believe in “Ubah” and “Ini kali lah”.
I told you if the Chinese rejected Najib’s leadership, the rural votes will swing to BN. DAP benefited the most. PAS, I do not know how it is going to reorganise itself. PKR we know practise nepotism, ask Azmin.
As for the Indian votes, only some Indians votes came back to BN. Koh Tsu Koon has announced his retirement. Chua Soi Lek is not seeking re-election. In the West you lose, you retire. Brown retired. Here they are not morally strong to quit. Anwar stays on, Kit Siang stays on, Hadi stays on. Let me remind you, Anwar said he would retire if he failed to get to Putrajaya. Anwar does not keep to his word. He will never retire, until the day he is on his deathbed he would still want to be PM.
Let’s recognise that nowhere in world is it easy to get a two-thirds majority. Urban voters everywhere in the world are anti-government. BN’s strength lies in the rural areas. Yet too much time and money were wasted in urban areas where the results were almost certain.
Q4: Chinese votes for opposition even reached over 90 per cent, why? From your observation, why MCA and Gerakan rejected by the Chinese? We still remember in 2004 the situation was totally different.
A: I have explained at length in the answer above. Chinese votes for the Pakatan reached 90 per cent because they believed in Pakatan’s propaganda. This is at last the chance to reject the Malay-led BN. We saw on Polling Day many Chinese came out in droves believing that Pakatan was going to win. They were all misled. Pakatan knew that they were not going to get the numbers. Imagine Chinese voting for PAS, when they have seen what was happening in Kedah and Kelantan. Chinese voters were taken for a ride that they were going to make the difference. If Hindraf can affect the 2008 results, imagine what the Chinese with their bigger number can do? This was the line given and they swallowed it. In 2004, Chinese gave the then PM with his clean image a chance but that got to BN’s head and 2008 was the result. In 2013, Pakatan tapped into the Chinese and urban psyche. The Chinese are practical people and if they felt that the votes could go either way, they would not take a chance and choose stability over change; but if they believed that they can change the government and win, then they did what you see in GE13. But Chinese normally bet on minority horse.
Q5: By analysing the results, we can see DAP won more seats this time and seats won by PKR and PAS also close to their numbers in 2008. Does it mean Malay votes still split? How about Indian votes?
A: Malay votes split four ways. Umno, PAS, Keadilan and fence-sitters. Lucky for BN, this time most went to Umno. Less than 50 per cent of Indian voters voted BN.
